Textiles in Art & Design - Research

Do Ho Suh - 1962, Seoul, Korea.

Do Ho Suh a Korean artist really inspired me, he achieved a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and a MFA in sculpture from Yale University. He is interested in the malleability of space in both it's physical and metaphorical manifestations. He creates installations specific to each site, his work explores the relation between individuality, collectivity and anonymity.

He has just completed his largest artwork to date, the piece called "Home within home within home within home within home" situated at Seoul's National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the installation represents two previous homes he lived in at 1:1scale, built with silk the structure gives the impression of a 3D blueprint.

The two homes splice traditional Korean homes with a modern apartment building from the United States, the piece is so large visitors can walk inside and explore it.

Art & Design - Urban Landscape Research

While researching various Urban Landscape artists I came across some, who's work I really, really like. The first one is Angela Wakefield, she paints contemporary Urban Landscapes which are quite stunning.

Below are some pieces of her work.

The realism of them is extraordinary, they almost look like edited photographs. I really like this kind of work, will keep an eye on her future work.

The second artist I became really fond of is Leo Verhoeven, his work is usually based on London cityscapes as he focuses on modernist architecture. His use of colour and the simplicity of work is genius.

I think I'm drawn to the work by these artist because of my love for illustration, given my computer background I can really relate to the style of work, although these are not created using a computer, the style is very, very similar to a computer illustrated piece. 

Textiles in Art & Design - Image Maker

After taking the computer components apart I decided to try and develop some ideas that had come to me. I started by photographing different parts of the computers.

This is a built up section of parts that resemble two things in my mind, firstly I though it resembled an industrial type scene but also secondly it could easily be perceived as a petrol station. You do have to be open minded to see different things within this though. 

So I then took a close up photograph of a section within this structure;

Now this close up really has an industrial feel to it in my opinion, so I decided to go ahead and use this image. I then decided to develop it into a textile sample by using Image Maker. 

Image Maker allows you to transfer photocopied/printed pictures onto fabric, using black and white or coloured photocopies. 

Here's the method;  

1. Print/Photocopy the desired image and choose the fabric you want it to be transferred onto.

2. Apply Image Maker paste/solution evenly over the picture, be generous with the paste.

3. Place picture onto the fabric, paste side down.

4. Press the picture on firmly, smooth out any wrinkles.

5. Allow to dry, use a hair dryer to quicken up the process.

6. Soak the printer paper and gently rub it away, starting in the centre and working outwards.

7. Allow the fabric to dry and apply oil to it in order to seal the surface. 

So, using this method I developed the picture into the following sample;

It didn't come out too good, and I believe the reasons for this to be;

1. Image was black and white and not colour.

2. I didn't apply any oil after it dried. 

3. Fabric wasn't the best. 

So, with the flaws I believed to be the problem in mind I decided to have another shot with a different image to see if I could improve the final outcome. 

New image is a of a colourful circuit board, I then followed the steps and I feel it came out a lot better than my first try, I used a better material which took the transfer better. I then added oil as the final step and which really helped the image lift and gave it an added dimension, it literally looks like a photograph on fabric.

I was very please with the outcome on this.

Outcome.

Textiles in Art & Design - Progress

So i've been playing around with computer components trying out different things in order to get an idea for my final piece.

Here's some images of computer parts I've pulled apart and dismantled.

Found myself becoming fascinated in the circuit/mother boards themselves during this, they almost look like cities from an aerial view with all the lines and channels. 

Textiles in Art & Design - Material Distressing/Manipulating

Not updated in a while so thought it's best to catch up, I didn't update on this task at the time so I'll start here. We had two distressing tasks the first was with a netted material made from individual strands and the second was with a mesh type copper material.

I went with the same theme for both and attempted to dismantle them and re-construct them into batches of wires (going along my computer theme)

Here's the first;

I pulled the individual strands apart and then clustered them together using strands to tie them into place.

Here's the second;

I used the same technique again with this one, obviously this one came out a lot better as it was stronger and held together far better.

Art & Design - Textiles

Last Thursday we were tasked with working in groups to create a 3D Sculpture or Installation from a provided image, for this task +Alan Camps  +Jonny Marriner and Myself teamed up.

We were provided with the following image and given the whole lesson to come up with our interpretation of it in a 3D form.

After giving it some thought we decided to take a more calculated approach and try to use mathematics to help re-create this building. We had vision of a 60cm tall sculpture consisting of 10 independent layers each 6cm tall but 1cm thinner each time, we thought that this would help create the effect of the tower slowly thinning out into a point as you get higher up. 

In order to create each platform we measured and cut thin wooden rods starting with the biggest 10cm down the smallest 1cm and grouped them all up in sizes ready to create each platform.

We then had to make a decision on a material to use for the main body of the platforms, we had a look at different fabrics for example felt but in the end we decided to opt with paper. We went with this because it can be easily manipulated to create strength for example rolling it or folding it, and for that reason we thought it would be ideal for our project. 

Next we cut paper 6cm tall by the width of the rods, then we used a rolling technique to lightly attach the wooden rods to the paper and again grouped them into sizes.

We then decided to stitch the rolled rods in order to add some more strength and stability to each individual panel for the platforms. We used the machines to stitch in a zig zag pattern which held the rods in firmly.

Moving on the plan was to assemble each platform by tying the left over threads together on each connecting edge. At this point we started to experience our first problem, simply fastening them together meant they were not sturdy enough. 

At this point time was running out and we were in big trouble in terms of getting the structure assembled, we tried various way to salvage the platforms one of them was adding metal rods into the paper, bending them around into the next piece creating a solid corner. 

Unfortunately this didn't stabilise the platforms enough and as the lesson was drawing to a close we decided to try and build the finished piece with the unsteady platforms. The plan was to layer to platforms starting with the largest at the bottom, we planned to slightly rotate each platform in order to create the spiral effect of the tower. 

Although our final effort didn't come out very well, we felt that our concept and planning was correct and given more time we felt that we could have pulled it off. It was unfortunate that we encountered problems so late on as it left us with little to no time to plan around it. 

In hind sight I think we would have benefitted from finding a better way to assemble each platform so it was sturdy enough to hold itself independently, had we have solved this problem I think it would have been plain sailing from their on, resulting in a much better final piece.  

Computers in Art & Design

Forgot to update after the lesson three weeks back so thought I'd do some catching up. So basically we were just playing around with ideas in Photoshop and although this has nothing to do with the concept for my final piece I thought I'd have a play around with an image.

I took an image of an Urban alleyway and just went with the flow really, firstly I changed the sky using colour range to select the white areas of the image and then used the dapper to add into the white to select the whole sky, I then found an image of the sky I wanted and dragged it in using free transform to position it where I wanted. Then on the original layer on the colour range I selected the white and went back onto the new sky layer, I then created a layer mask to add the sky in. Next I used Curves to get the required lightness/darkness on the sky.

I then added some lighting into the image, so I drew beams of light using the pen tool to draw the shape and then filled them with solid white, I then used a Gaussian Blur and lowered the opacity to create a sort of glow emanating from the sky, down the alleyway.

Next I wanted to add something to the plain brick wall, so I took an image of the Joker and used filters to make it appear more illustrated, and then I used the layer blend modes and changed the perspective with transform to make it appear to be on the wall.

Lastly I wanted to add a person, so I searched high and low to find a decent profile image of a hooded person, and when I came across one that would work it was cut off just below the waist. Undeterred I used the image and used the pen tool and brush tool to draw in the legs and feet, I then scaled and positioned the person in the alleyway and darkened him up as the light source is behind him. Lastly to add more of a real effect I added a shadow of him in by duplicating the layer and filling it completely black, I then used free transform and perspective to position the shadow before lastly using a Gaussian Blur to make it appear as a shadow.

Before.

After.